Edgar Wright Says THE WORLD’S END Is About “Looking Backwards”; Talks Film’s Relationship to SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ

It’s unofficial “The World’s End Day,” and that’s very much a good thing. Earlier today we got a look at some new images from director Edgar Wright’s new film along with some quotes from star/co-writer Simon Pegg about the pic. The World’s End closes out the “Blood & Ice Cream” trilogy that Wright, Pegg, and co-star Nick Frost started with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and this time around the story concerns five friends who attempt to make it through an epic pub crawl. Yet another new image has now been released online alongside some fascinating comments from Wright about the film’s theme (nostalgia and “looking backwards”), its relationship to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, skewering American manchild comedies, and Pegg’s goth look for his character.

Hit the jump to read on. The World’s End will be released in the U.K. on August 14th, followed by its U.S. release on October 25th.

Speaking with IGN, Wright described the film as “a boy’s night out movie gone wrong,” and talked about its themes:

“Shaun was about where we live – our neighbourhood in North London. And then Hot Fuzz was about going back home. Home for me and Simon in terms of a small town. But this one is about looking backwards. It’s more nostalgic. I think a lot about my adolescence and my teenage years and things I’d do differently. I have grand fantasies of going back in time and doing things better. Back to when I was 15 or 16. So there’s an element of that – whether it’s healthy to look or go backwards. That’s kind of what the theme of the film is.”

The filmmaker also addressed Pegg’s goth character, noting that he has some similarities to the actor in real life:

“Simon went through a goth phase. If you’ve read Simon’s autobiography there are pictures of him as an Echo and the Bunnymen/Sister of Mercy fan. And he did dye his hair black, so we thought that was a way to make him look distinctly different. The funny thing is I think he kind of pulls it off. He doesn’t look too tragic to me.”

Finally, Wright revealed that the film brings an end to the “Blood & Ice Cream” trilogy’s overarching theme of growing up and also skewers the recent trend of manchild comedies:

“I think this one is our way of wrapping up, with some formality, the man-child aspect of the series. There’s an element within all of the movies that’s about growing up. Shaun has to grow up to be a hero. In Hot Fuzz Nick Angel has to dumb down to Andy’s level to save the day. And with this one I wanted to do something where… there’s a lot of American comedies in the last 10 years that have been about man children or dealing with responsibility. But I feel that they never get too deep under the surface. They bring up some aspects but don’t delve into them very deeply. And I think here we tried to skewer those movies in a sense.”